Nerdology 101: Working with a Character Designer as an Indie Author
Hello, and welcome back to Nerdology 101, the blog where I explore all things nerdy and you read it because you’re a good little nerd just like me. That’s right. Good nerd, you keep reading this blog like the little cutie you are. LOL. #PraiseKink - Nerdy Edition. I’m your weekly blogger, Maria Levato, a proud fellow nerd and indie author. Let’s get started!
This week, we’ll be talking about character design! I chose this topic because I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse around it—particularly from other indie authors who keep getting ghosted by people they hire. It’s no good, so I figured I’d do a deep dive and talk about my experieces with it. Hopefully, this helps someone weed out the AI slop and false artists to find that ever-elusive perfect match. At the end, I’ll also name a few character artists I know to be legit.
What are your experiences working with character artists?
I’ve worked with two of them. The first was in 2023. I hired this one off of Fivver. He did great work, designing art for my whole original cast in The Islands of Rune universe. The price was affordable at $75/piece for 6 characters, full body, single pose, no backgrounds. I loved the pieces and it was a great time. Unfortunately, though, we eventually went our separate ways. It’s worth noting, though, that AI wasn’t as much of an issue on the platform a few years ago as it is now. I cannot speak to what searching would be like on there today. If you have worked with someone on Fivver or a similar platform recently, please share that experience in the comments to elaborate on this. However, for the time being, I will say that my experience hiring someone off of the platform was positive and that, if nothing has changed that makes it more complicated, I would recommend using it.
The second time I worked with a character artist is right now. A few weeks ago, I put a call out on Threads asking artists to drop their work in the comments. As you can imagine, a mass of them flocked to the post and I was left with the task of sorting through it all. It was a wild ride, but a good idea. It boosted my engagement and profile signifcantly while also offering an opportunity to people that allowed them to display their work. There were a ton of great submissions, but ultimately, I found my artist. As of now, I’ve commission two pieces from them (one NSFW and one SFW). These two are slightly more expensive than the original two, but this time I also wanted full, exclusive rights to the work and for the pieces to reflect scenes from the book they’re associated with—meaning there we’re backgrounds and more than one character in the images which makes it more complex. Given that, the additional cost makes plenty of sense and is still great for what I’m getting. I paid 50% of the price upfront via PayPal—this is where it goes wrong for a lot of authors—but I wasn’t ghosted! Ever since, I’ve recieved a few updates per week from the designer—which is a huge help in making sure they aren’t using AI—and communication has been consistent. This is mostly the experience we’re going to be talking about for the rest of this post because there’s a lot to learn. We’ll discuss: How I made sure I wouldn’t get ghosted, how I checked for AI on the original post, and a few other key topics that may help someone hiring a character designer for the first time—especially if, like me, they’re still learning how to spot the less obvious AI.
Does follower count matter?
Sometimes, but it’s not an end all be all way of making a judgement about whether you’re dealing with a bot or not. While this can indicate that the profile is bot-run, I’d call it a yellow flag because there are a lot of other things that this could mean. For example, since Meta and TikTok favor white, western, eurocentric content, sometimes someone who doesn’t speak perfect English or has a style that doesn’t fit into that narrow box can struggle to gain a following. Also, there’s new people. Maybe the artist just opened their commissions for the first time or just started pursuing it as an income stream. There’s also the possibility that they’ve been doing this for a while, but haven’t found quite the right combination of hashtags that work for them. Social media is hard. Trust me, I will struggle with it because I’m video shy (I start stuttering and get anxious every time I try to record one). For someone who doesn’t post reels, growing a following is a slow process. So, make sure that you aren’t knocking a perfectly valid artist because of something that isn’t necessarily indicitive of their humanity or talent.
2. Okay, then how do I find the bots?
That’s a layered process. First, give instruction. Tell people to drop their work in the comments. Those who DM you anyway are either bots or people who don’t listen well. You don’t want either because even if they are real, an artist needs to be able to follow the specifications provided in the commission. It’s the same reason those of us who are pusuing trad publishing have to follow the guidelines provided by lit agents/agencies when querying. So, this step will weed out some of the bots, but also some of the people who exhibit signs that they might not be suited for your commission. Next, watch language. One thing I continuously saw that registered as a red flag for me is this one phrase that came up in multiple submissions: “I look forward to your positive reply.” It’s not all that often that I hear a human say something like that, so to see it in multiple subs put me off. Most of people understand that’s manipulative and shifts unfair pressure onto the commissioner to hire. It’s especially weird for an artist to say because it makes the assumption that they’re getting a commission over every other interested party and most true artists respect the work of other artists. Thus, I see that as either a bot or a narcissist, so again, it’ll weed out more bots and people with undesirable traits that might make them hard to work with. Once you narrow it down, DM 3-5 artists. TALK TO THEM. Ask questions. Discuss rates. Talk about the commission. Anything. It won’t take too long for you to notice if the conversation feels manufactured, as if you’re speaking to a bot. This functions as a vibe check and a bot check.
3. And what about the people who are actually people, but are using AI?
Spotting AI is becoming increasingly difficult as the technology continues to invade creative industries, but there are still things you can do to spot it. Lines are a big one. Humans have distinguishable lines around their drawings. Think of a coloring book. Each object in the photo has a clear outline even after its colored in. If we removed that, the picture wouldn’t look quite right to us. AI usually doesn’t have these lines. That’s one way you can spot it. Of course, there’s ways slop generators get around that too. It’s easy to do, especially if they do AI-assisted art. This is where AI checkers come in. There’s more than a few sites that offer this service free. My advice: Use more than one. Some are good at catching certain things, others excel at catching other things. It’s always good to have more than one source. Another helpful tip is that AI is no good at mimicing extremely unique styles. What it generates typically fits into a more generic version of what its prompted to create. If an artist has a style you don’t see all the time, they probably didn’t use AI to make it.
4. That’s good to know, but now, how do I protect myself from people who are just out to scam me?
As with everything, written agreements are the best way to protect yourself. I used Jotform to create mine. Set it so the form is private and only those you send invites via email can access it. Add signature fields and a recaptcha—and if you’re really suspicious, add a second check in the way of a “Select all that apply” question to be extra sure the bots don't get in. Define your terms clearly. Define what the total payment is, what the deposit is, when it will be paid, and when other payments will be made based on your discussion with the artist. Make sure you state clearly that the artist must work within the specifications, not use AI in any capacity, not be affiliated with anything that would have affected your decision to hire them, etc. Make sure it’s clear that violation of terms will void the contract, that they’ll owe you a refund, that any legal recourse available will be pursued, etc. You should also address rights to the work in there. There’s levels to them. For most authors, you either want commercial use or full, exclusive use. Commercial is fine for most authors and will allow you to sell, but it leaves the artist the right to reuse designs made for your characters as long as they aren’t selling them. This isn’t an issue most of the time, one rarely interferes with the other, but in my case, I particularly wanted the designs to be synomous with my book. That comes with an upcharge and most artists don’t default to it. I was lucky to be in the position to pay it when I hired this time. Don’t stress too much if you aren’t, just be sure you know what your liscence includes.
Name your obligations as well. Write it all out. Then, even if you get ghosted, the payment platform will be inclined to reimburst you—or your bank will via a dispute if the platform refuses. Most payment platforms will do it without this, but on the off chance you run into an issue, this is good to have because it acts as evidence that you are owed the refund. The character artist I ended up hiring had no issue signing the agreement and I doubt many legitimate ones would, so long as the agreement is fair and reflects both sides because then, it protects them too. This is a perfect final line of defense. By this point, you’ve weeded out bots, jerks, and most problematic people. The artist you’ve chosen is a vibe match and you get along. You can see yourself working with them and you’re confident in them. This agreement is just there because sometimes even the best of us can make an error in judgement and something slips past us. It never hurts to have something in place just in case. The right artist won’t be insulted by this. If they are, most of the time that’s a them problem. Unless they provide some type of legitimate complaint or are suggesting a reasonable ammendment, don’t fall for the “Oh, you should just trust me.” Real artists are well aware of the struggles indies face when it comes to this and are glad to see that more of us are learning to protect ourselves.
5. I finally have my character artist. Now what?
Congratulations! You made it to the part of the process that’s actually enjoyable. Now, you get started. If you haven’t already sent it to help the artist quote you accurately (some will want you to, others have standard rates), send the artist a document addressing the specifications for your project(s). Go into full detail about what your characters look like, what size you need the images to be, if you want them in scene and if so, what that scene looks like, reference photos, etc. For reference on how much information you should include, my document was 6 pages long for 2 characters, 2 scenes, and there were still holes I had to find reference photos for after the fact because I hadn’t thought of it (positioning for the NSFW scene. Lol. We spent a whole morning exchanging hentai pics to get it right). After that, if you defined a communication frequency with your artist agreement, which I did, you should hear from them with about that frequency unless they have questions. They should send you progress updates so you can see the work as it progresses, reassuring you that its not AI, but also giving you the opportunity to give additional feedback and let them know your thoughts along the way. Feel free to ask questions. Unless you draw too, it’s normal to have things you don’t know or need to ask in order to make sure the art is coming out as you want it to. Enjoy the process, it’s rewarding and is a huge part of bringing your imagination to life. Hopefully, if all goes well, you can return to this artist for future projects and continue to work together.
6. Artists I Feel Comfortable Recommending?
This is the one I’m working with now. As you can tell, I’m enjoying working with them and have zero complaints.
https://www.instagram.com/sincerrio/
This artists was one of my top choices. While I didn’t end up hiring her, she does amazing work and has worked with plenty of other authors, including some very prolific ones.
https://www.instagram.com/whet.paint/
This artist was also one of my top choices. Again, he wasn’t my final, but his work is still awesome and works he’s done for other authors are included in his portfolio.
https://www.instagram.com/officialichigo7/
So far as I know, all of these artists are accepting commissions at this time.
I hope you enjoyed this weeks Nerdology 101 segment. Make sure you let me know in the comments. Share your experiences, ask more questions, recommend topics for future posts, etc. I’ll see you back next Friday at 3PM ET for the next one. As always, have a nerdy week!
